NewTek?s SpeedEDIT editing system

Product Review: Page (1) of 1 - 01/31/08

NewTek?s SpeedEDIT editing system By Heath McKnight

NewTek?s SpeedEDIT promises to be the fastest non-linear editing (NLE) software around, and that?s clearly the case. It supports ?Multi-Def? video types (i.e., high definition and standard definition, NTSC and PAL) and was a breeze to learn how to use. I became impressed when I actually began cutting with it to see just how fast it works.

Final Cut Pro may be my tool of choice, but I?ve spent a lot of time working with Vegas 8 and now SpeedEDIT. I was first introduced to the application when I did a review of the NewTek TriCaster STUDIO . The version of software found in the TriCaster STUDIO was considered a ?light? version, but it was enough to know I needed to try out the full version of SpeedEDIT (currently at version 1.5, early 2008).

Setting up SpeedEDIT was a breeze, and I was soon ready to start. When I first opened the application, it prompted me to choose which type of video I was cutting. I then plugged in an HDR-FX1, selected the drive I?d be capturing to (never the start-up disk where the operating system and software applications reside), and I was ready to capture some HDV 1080i60 tapes on a brand new HP quad-core system with 3GB RAM and a 600GB media drive. Capturing tapes was probably the slowest part of SpeedEDIT, since it?s real-time.

Editing
Once my footage was in, I was ready to edit. During the TriCaster STUDIO demo, NewTek?s Don Ballance asked my colleague and I what was old fashioned about all the NLEs. We had no answer so he told us: the timeline. Even though it?s non-linear editing, you still do things pretty much in a linear fashion. He then introduced us to the Storyboard function of editing, and explained that the timeline is literal and linear, no matter what, and the Storyboard is conceptual and non-linear.

The Storyboard function in SpeedEDIT

Don showed us how the Storyboard works: A clip becomes like a ?box,? and you manipulate that with other clips/boxes. They?re the same size, but not the same length. I threw a few of these clips down and was surprised at how fast and easy it is to edit, manipulate and more. Of course, the first thought in my head was, ?This is probably the best NLE for TV news editors!?

I was an editor at an NBC station in Palm Beach, Florida for three years. Don?t get me wrong, Avid News Cutter and Final Cut Pro?s new offerings, Final Cut Server, are excellent applications, but SpeedEDIT just made it quicker and easier to hit those brutal, unforgiving TV news deadlines. Of course, you don?t need to be editing just news in SpeedEDIT. You can also cut films, TV shows, commercials, etc. I would love to try out SpeedEDIT on my next short film.

You can cut in either Storyboard or Timeline, and both are easy to work with. Knowing that I have unlimited ?undo? and ?redo? functionality is great, too, and having to not set it up that way is the best part. SpeedEDIT seems to be built for people who don?t like to set up too many settings manually, which is a plus, but you have full control if you want to.

Codec
SpeedHQ is the codec SpeedEDIT uses when capturing and editing. It?s 4:2:2, so you?re getting high quality video here. Different formats of video, such as QuickTime or AVI, are easy to mix and match, as is mixing SD and HD video clips. It actually looks good when I dropped a DV clip onto an HD Story Board set-up. Once you select your output option, say QuickTime, click on Customize and choose your video size, compression type (for web, etc.) and you're ready to export. Outputting to tape, video for the web, DVD, mobile devices, etc. was a piece of cake, with a simple click of the mouse.

Tools
The Tool Shed Presets offers editors image effects, tools to do transition effects and more. Real-time Chroma Keying works well, though I don?t consider myself much of an effects guy. Not having to worry that the rendering time will cost an editor a deadline is a major plus. Color Correction is smart and intuitive, plus I got a kick out of how fast the image stabilization works. It took a few hours in Final Cut Pro 6 to analyze a 1:15 clip (rendering was fast), but in SpeedEDIT, the image stabilization took very little time, under a minute. That?s right, I was just as stunned; Don from NewTek used a shot from a helicopter to show just how fast it works! Editing to music is great, and SpeedEDIT can help automatically align cuts to the music, which is easy to trim to your specifications. Music video editing just got easier!

Conclusion
SpeedEDIT is a lot of fun to use, and though it?s a great NLE for any type of editing, be it commercials, film, TV, etc. I still think TV news stations would benefit greatly from this software application. For the review, I used a quad core HP running Windows Vista with 3GB of RAM, and also a Toshiba Qosimo G45-AV690 (www.toshiba.com) with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 3GB of RAM. The faster the computer, the better you?ll be able to enjoy fast, ?Multi-Def? editing with SpeedEDIT. Visit www.newtek.com/speededit to learn more.

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Heath McKnight is a filmmaker and author who recently co-produced the feature film DECEMBER, along with directing, producing and co-writing the feature film 9:04 AM. He was also a contributor to VASST's best-selling book, "The FullHD." You can find out more about Heath at his website at www.mpsdigital.com. and can be contacted at hmcknight@gmail.com

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